12 Volt breaker at the Battery?

[H. John Kohl]

Reading the post by prariepoodle about the fire in their battery compartment area and past by lightningjack11 or his burnt wires I am inclined to think there is not a breaker or fuse close to the battery for the lead that goes to the inverter.

What would you electrically smart folks recommend? I did not think about the run on my trailer until today. It is about 15 to 20 feet of wire and a lot could happen along that run besides going through the wall and chaffing.

If I remember correctly it is 30 or 60 amps to the inverter. So a 60 or 75 amp fuse or breaker should work. It might just keep a fire from starting.

Ideas? Comments? I see I have so work to do when BigSky is pulled out this spring.

Good luck and tow safe.
Happy Thanksgivings to all.

[OntMont]

I was wondering the same thing. If the fuse was big enough, say 100 amp, would it realy provide any protection? Up to 100 amps could still do a lot of damage before the fuse blew.

[firetrucker]

I was wondering how much of the problem was due to the converter, since they were plugged into ac, and the melting extended well beyond the front compartment. I don't know if the converter is fused internally, or externally, on the battery line, but it sounds like it should be.

Bob

[ols1932]

I understand when wires chafe against metal that they will short the voltage to ground. Was it the DC wires or AC wires? I'm assuming it was the DC wires. All the DC circuits go through the converter (assuming that there was no inverter installed) and should all be fused with 15 Amp fuses.

In my case, I have the converter disabled, all except for the circuit breaker panel. So, all the DC circuits are still protected with the same 15 Amp fuses.

I'm fairly knowledgeable about the circuits in our RVs but don't know exactly why a fuse didn't blow in this case.

[William H. Collier]

If I have been reading this right the short occured between the battery and the converter. On mine the positve cable goes from the battery through two circut breakers that are in parallel then splits off in two lines, one to the slide pump and the other goes through the wall to the converter. With mine a dead short would trip these breakers way before a fire, unless of course they were faulty.
Bill

[ols1932]

quote:Originally posted by William H. Collier

If I have been reading this right the short occured between the battery and the converter. On mine the positve cable goes from the battery through two circut breakers that are in parallel then splits off in two lines, one to the slide pump and the other goes through the wall to the converter. With mine a dead short would trip these breakers way before a fire, unless of course they were faulty.
Bill

The breakers could have been faulty. We never like to think that parts like that could be bad, but they do happen. I know I had a bad 30 amp breaker that when replaced still tripped with less than 30 amps. Two more breakers were purchased before we found one that worked right. I never like to suspect that procurement knowingly purchases bad parts. Manufacturers like to be able to provide individual parts at a rate of less tha 3-5% failures. It would seem very coincidental if a person was to get there parts within that rate. But it can happen.

Said all of that to say this, we all need to check our electrical circuits periodically. For example, in the converter, all the AC neutral wires (white) attach to a single bus. These wires should be periodically tightened down. From all the bouncing and pounding our rigs take, things loosen up. If a neutral wire comes loose, you now have 220 volts on the circuit and I think you can imagine what happens to electrical appliances designed for 110 volts suddenly have 220 volts applied.

Just my input. Hope it may help a little.

[Trailer Trash 2]

I was looking at the hole and it seems to be quite protected how can it get rubbed and where would a person put this fuse you guys are talking about.

http://tinypic.com/hsj9xg.jpg

Picture of hole and wires

[Warren Wayland]

If prariepoodle was plugged into shore power and the converter was on, maybe there is no fuse or breaker from the converter to the battery. I will be checking this out in the spring.